Ranching— It's in His Blood

June 16,1976-BIG TIMBER PIONEER Agriculture Section-Pa«e 11 HARRY Brewer..Jie has a special affection for the land, his cattle and horses. Ranching— It's in his blood By LIN D A LARSON these two little redheads, they climbed into the operate her ranch on the West Boulder. She wagon and began to run their fingers unbeliev purchased a place on the Sweet Grass in 1942 and An era of ranching is slowly moving into ingly through the children’s hair. The children Gramma lived there. In June of 1948 there was a history. It was a time when a rancher’s cattle sat there very still and frightened. They were flash flood on the Sweet Grass. Gramma and my were his life; a time when a man’s word was as glad when their father finished his business and mother were alone there at the time. The legally binding as a signed contract; a time of headed for home. neighbors had to take them from the house to long hours, hard work and little pay; a time of Grampa grew up around horses, cattle and dry ground in a boat. I was bprn several days hitching posts, buckboards and open range; a mules. By the time he had reached his teens he later. time when a man could be hanged for stealing was helping with cattle drives. In those days the In the late summer of 1948 Mrs. Arnold another man’s horse. ranches kept their steer calves until they were decided to give up ranching, so she sold the three or four years old and, then, in early fall, all Sweet Grass ranch to the Blumquist family. A My grampa, Harry Brewer, was born during the neighboring ranches would throw their cattle short time later Grampa became the owner of the that era near the little town of Camp Crook, S.D., together in one large herd and drive them to the ranch on the West Boulder. The ranch soon in 1900. The town was named after Captain railroad at Belle Fouche. became known for the hospitality shown by my Crook, a U.S. Calvary Officer, who camped in the Grampa married Mabel Clark, a Camp Crook grandparents. The house was near the road and area and engaged in numerous battles with the girl. They have a son, Loren, and Grampa also everyone that stopped by was invited in for a cup Indians. has a son, Roland, from a previous marriage. of coffee. If it happened to be close to meal time At the time of Grampa’s birth there were just The family stayed in the Camp Crook area Grampa asked them to stay and eat. If it was late a few white families living in that area. His until 1936. That year Gramps became employed in the evening, he always asked them to spend father, Frank Brewer, worked for one of the first in Yellowstone Park, near Mammoth, as a dude the night. It didn’t matter if he’d just met them big cattle ranches to set up headquarters there. wrangler. Gramma lived in a tent in the that day or years earlier. Later he purchased his own ranch and raised employees campground for the first part of the My grandparents lived on the West Boulder horses. summer. When idleness and constant bear until recently when health reasons forced invasions became too much, she took a job at Grampa to sell a portion of the ranch and move to GRAMPA RECALLS one day when his father Corwin Springs until Grampa finished the tourist Big Timber. • loaded him and his sister, Rowena, into the season. Several years later Grampa worked on buckboard and drove into town. On the way back the Diamond S Dude Ranch on Mill Creek and GRAMPA HAS a special feeling for the land they stopped at a nearby Indian camp to do a later for Stan Cox on the West Boulder. the cattle and horses; a feeling unique to the little “horse tradin’’. Grampa and Rowena both older ranchers and their families. Grampa loves had bright red hair. When the Indian women saw IN 1941 Helen Fargo Arnold employed him to this land and sorrows at the way our country is changing. He fully appreciates the beauty of the Boulder Valleys. Most of the cows he has now, he has raised. He knows his cattle and can tell which calf belongs to which cow even at a distance, unlike many modern ranchers who need numbered ear tags or neck chains. The horses are still very important to him. Up until the mid-fifties he still used a team of horses or mules to put up his hay. He used mules to skid logs out of the mountains for his small saw mill. A team and a sleigh or wagon were used to feed hay to the cattle in the winter. He still uses the mules to pack salt in to the summer reserve pasture. Ranching is still his life. People have often svggested that he sell all of his stock and retire completely but he could never be happy then. A man like my grandfather couldn’t remain idle and still feel that he was of any value to himself or anyone else..

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